ICT Support for English Teaching and Learning

1. ICT Support for English Teaching and Learning

2. ICT Support for English Learning • Access a range of resources in English • Develop all four language skills • Develop their understanding of language structure, patterns and rules • Communicate with people for whom English is the first language

3. The Unique Features of ICT Texts • ICT texts work in a dynamic, collaborative and interactive medium: • Be non-linear in structure • Be composed by many authors • Encourage different kinds of reader interaction • Have a spatial dimension

4. The features of ICT which facilitate learning • ICT in English enables • Text to be composed and changed with ease • Different media to be integrated into one text • Extension of the range of resources available • Focused opportunities for talk • Development of critical literacy

5. the skills learners need to benefit from ICT in English • An understanding of the distinctive features of such texts • The skills to use these different resources to shape their knowledge and experience • An understanding of what differences the choices made by writers concerning representational medium (text, image, sound, multimedia) and transitional mode (print, electronic, spoken) have on the text status and meaning

6. Lesson Planning • The most successful lessons that use ICT will be the best planned lessons.

7. Before Planning • Check on available computers. Make sure that software is available and that printers are working. • List your objectives and clarify how using ICT will enable you to achieve your goals. • Decide how you will group the students to undertake the activity. What will those who are not on the computer be doing? • Decide how and when the students will report back about their work. • Identify the skills to be taught in the planning • Determine how assessment and recording will take place.

8. A Written Lesson Plan • Background Information • Teaching/Learning Objectives • Methodology and Organization • Differentiation • Assessment Opportunities • ICT Capability developed • Resources

9. IT and English activities exploring and ideas • Composing texts • Presenting texts • Reading texts • Transforming texts • Exploring texts

10. Composing texts • Brainstorming initial ideas for a poem on a word processor, planning and drafting • Creating a collaborative story, e.g. one pair of pupils writes the first paragragh of the story, the next pair add the dialogue, etc. • Creating a story skeleton which pupils use to develop their own narrative • Using a multimedia authoring program to make an information text • Communicating with other using e-mail, e.g. to produce a collaborative text

11. Presenting texts • Creating posters, advertising good reads to be found in the library, for example • Producing a double-page spread for a television listing magazine for a children book which is to be serialized • Producing books for young readers. • Using spreadsheets or databases to present information on resource findings • Producing a multimedia presentation which includes digitized images, such as a guide to the local area for visitors

12. Reading texts • Reading three words in a text file to change the story emphasis, for example, turning a happy ending into a sad one • Designing three versions of an advertisement: one pure text, one text and image, and one text, image and sound. Evaluating the differences. • Deconstructing a multimedia text to explore how the parts make a whole and contribute to meaning. • Reconstructing a text from which key elements have been deleted.

13. Transforming texts • Turning a file of description prose into a haiku • Changing a narrative into a drama script • Selecting all the factual elements from a text file of fiction and turning them into a piece of journalism • Using the thesaurus to change adjective from positive to negative • Reworking texts about holiday resorts for different audiences

14. Exploring texts • Exploring and evaluating different versions of the same ways story published on the day • Searching three CD-ROM encyclopedias for a famous person’s biography. What are the differences? • Searching the Internet or CD-ROM for information to support a particular point for view on a topic such as animal rights, and word processing a report on the findings. • Producing a questionnaire about teenage health, graphing results and publishing them on the Internet, inviting other schools to comment • Searching a newspaper CD-ROM for background information prior to the study for a literary text

15. Examples of IT in English • Poetry • Researching a topic • Language study • Narrative • Literature • Media

16. Poetry • Edited a text file of a ballad which was in the incorrect order and used the cut and paste facilities to represent it • Edited a text file of the Writer of This Poem is (McGough), delete the similes and inserted their own to describe themselves. • Edited a text file of a poem with its line endings elided, discussed, where line endings would be appropriate and presented the text in the best shape for its meaning • Reworked a text file of descriptive prose as a haiku • Used a desktop publishing package to present a poem in a variety ways

17. Researching a topic • Searched CD-ROM to discover biographical information about famous Victorians, checked the information for inconsistencies and reworked the files to produce a class book about them • Used a word processor to write the diary of an explore and changed the font to script • Collected information and put it into a prepared database about housing and health hazards in Victorian times; they then searched the database and used the information obtained to word process letter to a newspaper about their findings • Used a text file of a moral tale published for Victorian children and redrafted it to make it relevant to today • Searched CD-ROMs for information about inventions to create a wall display

18. Language Study • Created a database of slang words used by themselves and adults and organized the data into fields which included word, definition, place, age of person using it, place of birth and place of residence • Searched a slang database to discover whether there were any differences between the slang words used by children and adults • Used the information from the database in a word processor to create a dictionary of slang

19. Narrative • Designed a database which identified characteristics of plot and charactersation in fairy tales • Interrogated the database to discover the formula to write a fairy story • Designed and created a book jacket for their tale including publicity blurb, author details and illustration • Communciated by e-mail with pupils in other countries to exchange versions of traditional tales • Redrafted a text file of a traditional tale into a different genre, e.g. horror, sci-fi, romance

20. Literature • Designed and created invitation to a party • Word processed letter that Romeo and Juliet might have changed • Created front-page news story covering the death of Tybalt • Searched a text-only CD-ROM for imagery sunning through the play • Used a cut and paste facility on a word processor to match questions with the speaker

21. Media • Loaded a text file of holiday resort information and reworked it to make it appeal to different audiences • Studied leaflets from campaigning organizations and produced their own • Created posters advertising forthcoming school events • Searched for and found schools’ homepage on the Internet and designed their own